Arrival in The Gambia

hello everyone,
my flight to The Gambia was a long journey. adelaide to sydney - 2 hours. sydney to joh'burg 14 hours, joh'burg to senegal- 9 hours with a 12 hour stop over inside a little dingy room at the airport for 12 hours with the guards holding onto my passport during this time. final flight dakar - banjul (capital of The Gambia) in a little plane. When i arrived i had to wait another two hours to be picked up. all up a 42 hour journey!! i arrived at my hotel, the safari garden, which is a small little place with white cottages and lovely gardens. i immediately went out to explore my surroundings and found the coastline. lots of gambians on the beach after work or school, went for a walk and met a man who sells textiles, so will have a shirt made in the next few days. i also forgot to mention that my luggage got lost, so hopefully it will appear in the next week or so.. i have walked around the the main st this mrning and have now met the other 8 volunteers. my impressions so far... very friendly place.. lots of greetings, smiles.. quite dry and sandy but palm trees and gumtress growing all over the place. I feel very safe and welcomed by the gambians.. temperature is about 30 degrees and sunny.. not humid yet.. ciao for now.. julie